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Sunday, April 6, 2008

My Hawaii

When I visit Hawaii, I usually stay with my Mom. This is her house, which is a refurbished three-bedroom plantation home.

She lives beside the "Papaaloa Park," which is a baseball field. When I visit her, I take morning walks around the perimeter of this field. It's common to meet neighbors on these walks. We would "talk story" and reminisce about the "good ole' days." I met one of my high school teachers on one of my morning walks here.

Located adjacent to the park is a "gym" where the senior citizens meet during the day, the local kids meet after school, and where major events and celebrations are held. When I was a little girl, the circus was held on these grounds. Community dances and Aloha Week festivals were held in the gym. My first performance as a hula dancer was held in this gym. You can see the roof and entrance to the gym to the left of this photo.

This photo shows the road traveling away from the gym and my Mom's home. When I was a little girl, there was a local theater located behind the bank to the left of the photograph, and a country store was situated in the vegetation to the right.

This is another photograph showing where the country store was located. I spent "ten cents" buying candy and a piece of bubble gum from the store to take into the movie theater across the street.

When I lived here, most everyone in the community worked on the sugar plantation. It's been years now since the closing of the plantation. Traveling along the road, you can see remnants of the sugar plantation equipment.

Traveling further down the road is this bridge, which has weathered many earthquakes.

This is the scene looking over the bridge into the river below, which we call "gulch." We swam in these gulches.

Another scene of the gulch. No longer used for swimming, the vegetation has taken over the area.

Yet another scene of the gulch from the bridge.

Crossing the bridge, you come to the local store, Papaaloa Community Store, and the post office. This is where most of the people in the community shopped for groceries and other dry goods. The store is no longer in operation, but the post office still serves the community.

Playing hide and seek among the vegetation was fun as long as you don't meet up with any spiders or lizards.

At the end of the day, you can go to bed dreaming of sailing into the sunset.

Hi, Cindy. My mom moved into this house after I graduated from high school. The house I grew up in is in another "camp" called "Kapehu." We watched whales from our porch each winter. Our house was located on high elevation beside the ocean. At the time, it was usual to see whales. When I think back at that time, I realize what a treat that was. Happy memories.

Hi Fannie, what a treat to take a walk in your home town! Thanks for sharing it with us. It's really amazing that when we live in such places we just take them for granted and it's not until we don't have them, or move away that we realise how valuable they were and how much we miss them.:) Carole